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BAGPIPES PLAY
November, 1916.

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00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:27,760
After 140 days on the Somme,
the storm of gunfire slackened.

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00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:34,800
Exhausted armies took their rest
under skies that carried
the first snows of winter.

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00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,720
1¼ million Europeans had been
killed or maimed or had disappeared

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00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,440
in the shell-drenched uplands
above the Somme.

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The whole area had become
an enormous graveyard at which
three great nations mourned.

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Field Marshal von Hindenburg
expressed their grief...

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Over everyone hovered the fearful
spectre of this battlefield,

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which, for desolation and horror,
seemed to be even worse

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00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,240
than that of Verdun.

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The millions of shell holes
filled with water

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or became mere cemeteries.

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Neither of the contending parties
knew the exultation of victory.

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"Neither of the contending parties
knew the exultation of victory."

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This was true of the whole war,
not just of the Somme.

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Nowhere on the vast perimeter
of the war, on the Eastern Front,

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in Italy,

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in the Balkans, had the battles
of 1916 brought a decision.

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As the wounded came home and
a third winter of war closed in,

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a chill gripped the hearts
of all the belligerents.

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The most depressing thing of all
were the casualty lists.

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Every time you opened a paper,
it seemed to be nothing
but casualty lists.

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And you always found people in it
that you knew.

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Everybody wore black
and that was very depressing.

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After I found that it was officially
known that he had been killed,

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I used to pass my time trying to
make little baby clothes for my baby

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and I felt
that I didn't want to live at all.

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The world had come to an end for me
because I'd lost all that I'd loved.

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For over two years, victory
had beckoned the obsessed nations.

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Two years of immense
effort and endurance,
and still victory lay far off.

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Men began to wonder
how long could it go on?

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How many more would die, how many
more weep, before the victory?

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An unfamiliar word
began to be whispered...peace.

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Rumours of peace offers
and peace talks

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spread from capital to capital
across a Europe half-ruined by war.

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Berlin. Excepting the wealthy
and those who have stored quantities
of food, everyone is undernourished.

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Many people are starving.

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Vienna. War weariness is growing

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and the longing for peace
is greater every day.

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Rome. There are already in Italy
symptoms of war weariness
and discontent.

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It would be wrong to say that there
exists here a grim determination.

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Petrograd. The losses which
Russia has suffered in this war

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are so colossal that
the whole country is in mourning.

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The impression is gaining ground
that it is useless going on.

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Paris. Full realisation
of the horrors of war is kept alive

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by the thousands of women
in mourning, the number of buildings
converted into hospitals,

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the continual appearance of
crippled soldiers and the marching
of troops, bound for battle lands.

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In October, Mr Asquith,
the British Prime Minister, asked
his Cabinet colleagues to consider

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what acceptable peace terms
might be demanded from Germany.

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In reply, Lord Lansdowne asked a
different and searching question...

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No-one for a moment believes
we are going to lose the war, but
what is our chance of winning it?

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Many of us must of late
have asked ourselves how this war
is ever to be brought to an end.

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To many of us it seems
as if the prospect of a knockout
was, to say the least, remote.

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Our own casualties
already amount to over 1,100,000.

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BUGLE PLAYS "The Last Post"

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We have had 15,000 officers killed,
not including those
that are missing.

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We are slowly but surely
killing off the best of the
male population of these islands.

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In the matter of manpower, we are
nearing the end of our tether.

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The last report of the
Manpower Distribution Board seems
to sound a grave note of warning.

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The unexhausted supply of men
is now very restricted.

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Availability can only be added to
by further depletion of industry.

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The army recruiting staff
used every argument in its armoury

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to persuade enough men to join up,
but in vain.

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By the end of 1915, the great surge
of volunteers was drying up.

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In January 1916, to meet
the army's demands for fresh men,

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the government
reluctantly introduced conscription
for single men between 18 and 41.

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Only a noisy minority protested
against the Military Service Act,

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instead of the mass resistance
throughout the country
feared by the government.

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In May, conscription was extended
to married men as well.

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The results were disappointing.

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There were 3,400,000 Britons
of military age,

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but no fewer than 2,600,000 of them
were in reserved occupations.

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Kitchener's early appeals
for volunteers

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had been answered
by thousands of workers
whom industry could ill spare.

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In Durham, coalminers
had marched off to war en masse.

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Now, in 1916, Britain and her
allies clamoured for British coal,

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coal for their war industries.

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# The music of the land
where we were born

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# We'll remember the laughter

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# And the sunshine after rain

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# And we'll grin, grin, grin
Till we win, win, win

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# And they come back again. #

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The President
of the Board of Trade paints
the picture in gloomy colours

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and anticipates
a complete breakdown in shipping.

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The submarine difficulty
is becoming acute.

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In September 1916,
just over 100,000 tons
of British shipping were sunk.

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By December, the monthly figure had
risen to more than 180,000 tons.

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In a year, nearly 1½ million tons
of shipping had been lost

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and only a third of this figure
had been built to replace it.

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Our shipbuilding is not keeping pace
with losses and, although
the number of our vessels is down,

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the demands upon our tonnage
are not diminished.

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The increasing size
of enemy submarines,
the strength of their construction

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point to the inescapable conclusion
that in spite of all our efforts,

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00:10:10,930 --> 00:10:15,610
it seems impossible to provide
an effective rejoinder to it.

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As British shipping declined, the
number of German U-boats doubled.

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In 1916, 95 had been built
and only 25 had been sunk.

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The size of our home fleets
is still insufficient.

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We have nearly reached the limit
of immediate production
in the matter of capital ships.

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We have not got enough destroyers
for escort and anti-submarine work.

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With the submarine
apparently invincible,

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the importance of producing
food from British farms increased,

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yet, Lord Lansdowne pointed out...

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The President
of the Board of Agriculture reports

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that there is
a world deficit in breadstuffs,

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that the price of bread is likely
to go higher, that there has been a
general failure of the potato crop,

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there is a shortage in the supply
of feeding stuffs,

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the difficulties of cultivation
steadily increase,

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land is likely to go derelict,
the yield to decline and the number
of livestock to diminish greatly,

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the supply of fish is expected
to be 64% below the normal.

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The financial burden
which we have already accumulated
is almost incalculable.

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We are adding to it at the rate
of over £5m per day.

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Generations will have to come and go
before the country recovers
from the financial ruin

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and the destruction of the means of
production which are taking place.

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All this it is no doubt our duty
to bear,

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but only if it can be shown that
the sacrifice will have its reward.

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The responsibility of those
who needlessly prolong such a war

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is not less than that of those
who needlessly provoke it.

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Lansdowne's memorandum
was a secret document.

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But reports in every newspaper
in 1916 hinted unmistakably

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at failure, disappointment,

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at sacrifice without reward.

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On Easter Sunday,
revolution exploded
in the graceful streets of Dublin,

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centre of English rule in Ireland
since the Middle Ages.

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1,500 men of the Sinn Fein party
seized the General Post Office
building,

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turned it into a stronghold and
proclaimed a republic of Ireland.

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In two days, British troops crushed
the rebellion with ruthless force.

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An uneasy tranquillity
was restored.

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The citizens of Dublin came out of
shelter and walked about the city,

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surveying the wreckage
with a bewildered unbelief.

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The rising had been the work
of extremists,

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like those who had killed
the Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo.

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Moderate Irishmen stood aside.

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Thousands of Irish volunteers
were fighting in the British army.

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The British took this for granted.

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They saw the Easter rebellion as
treachery at a moment when the UK
was battling for its very life.

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In the next ten days,
tension grew afresh in Ireland

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as the British executed
15 of the captured rebel leaders.

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Every shot resounded across
Ireland, across the Atlantic Ocean,
to the Irishmen in America.

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Every shot created another martyr
in Ireland's long struggle
for nationhood.

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After the executions, the British
army in Ireland were seen, even by
moderates, as an occupation force.

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00:14:12,970 --> 00:14:18,010
The homely men in khaki became
a symbol of foreign oppression.

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British bitterness against the
Irish rebels was reflected by the
great crowds outside the Old Bailey

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during the treason trial
of Sir Roger Casement.

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Casement was an Irish patriot,

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captured on the eve of the Rising
after landing from a German U-boat.

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He was eventually executed
more than three months
after the Easter rebellion.

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Blazing indignation
at Britain's actions swept
the Irish community in America.

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Their millions of votes were a
factor in the American presidential
election in the autumn.

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There were those who feared,
like Lloyd George,

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that the British victory in Ireland
might be bought at a high price.

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The Irish American vote
will go over to the German side.

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Unless something is done, even
provisionally, to satisfy America,

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the Germans will break our blockade

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and force on us
an ignominious peace.

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Lloyd George
proposed immediate home rule,

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but the blood of the martyrs
prevented any peaceful solution
in Ireland.

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The extremists did not want
compromise. They wanted
total and unconditional victory.

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Every belligerent
sought that elusive prize.

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On June 3rd, the most discouraging
news of the war glared from the
headlines of British newspapers.

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The British Grand Fleet had at last
encountered the German High Seas
Fleet off Jutland

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and apparently
had had the worst of the battle.

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Was this possible?

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BUGLE PLAYS

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00:16:19,210 --> 00:16:21,730
They fired the first shot

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and it went
just over the Princess Royal...

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Oh, about 50 yards.

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The battle cruiser Indefatigable
was the first to blow up

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because of a flash down into
the magazine from a German shell.

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It was a terrific explosion.

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The guns went up in the air like
matchsticks, 12-inch guns they were.

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00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:04,800
She began to settle down and in
about half a minute, she was gone.

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00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:22,360
Twenty minutes later,
the Queen Mary followed.

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Another ship's company paid with
their lives for the inferiority
of British design and material.

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Yet a third British battle cruiser
was similarly destroyed when
the main fleets came into action.

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00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,040
When I saw the Invincible
after the explosion,

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she was just, to me,
one flaming letter V.

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She went down broken clean asunder
in the midships, exactly like that.

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00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,200
Of course, after that,
other ships had already gone,

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many crippled,

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00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:01,320
and when we steamed
through the main patch,

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there was the men on rafts,
bits of wood...

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00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,360
bravely cheering, waving...

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00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:14,760
And there was a smell of cordite,
a smell of gas from shells

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and also burnt bodies.

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00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:24,160
The Germans issued a communique
which was quoted in newspapers
throughout the world.

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00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:30,800
Our High Seas Fleet encountered
on May 31st the main part
of the English fighting fleet,

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00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,560
which was superior to our forces.

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00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:41,080
During the afternoon, a series
of engagements developed between
the Skagerrak and the Horn Reef,

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which was successful for us.

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00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,120
GERMAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

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The British Admiralty did not say
whether they considered the Battle
of Jutland a victory or a defeat.

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00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:00,720
The newspapers
drew the inevitable conclusion.

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00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,440
The Times said...

194
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:10,360
It is clear that we have suffered
the heaviest damage at sea
we have met during the war.

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00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:12,880
The British were stunned.

196
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,400
The navy was their deepest pride.

197
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:19,920
Four centuries of decisive victory
lay behind the Royal Navy.

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00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,080
In 1916, the British people
expected no less.

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00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:30,560
Instead, Germany's navy had had
the best of an indecisive battle.

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00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:35,720
German ships had proved stronger,
more deadly fighting machines.

201
00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:41,480
Nevertheless, the German fleet
had run back to port.

202
00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,080
An American newspaper noted...

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00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:48,920
The German fleet has assaulted
its jailer and is still in jail.

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00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,800
Hard on the heels of Jutland came
more news of tragic loss at sea.

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Lord Kitchener was dead,
drowned in the cruiser Hampshire,

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00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:01,920
on his way to Russia.

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00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,960
For the last six months,
his power had dwindled.

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00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:13,080
Control of the army had passed
to General Robertson, Chief
of the Imperial General Staff.

209
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:18,600
Kitchener took leave of the country
he had served so valiantly alone.

210
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:25,640
Lloyd George was to have been
Kitchener's fellow passenger
to Russia in the Hampshire,

211
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:32,000
but the aftermath
of the Irish rebellion
had taken him to Dublin instead.

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00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:38,960
Kitchener's memorial service
was attended by vast crowds,
stunned at the news of his death.

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00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:41,520
MUSIC: "Abide With Me"

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00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:46,040
To them, he had still been a man
with the power of magic,

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00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:52,560
a titanic figure who had led
and protected them amid the furies
of this struggle...

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00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:57,080
Kitchener of Khartoum.
Now he was gone.

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00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:03,000
The Irish rebellion, Jutland,
Kitchener and the Somme,

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00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,120
a year that had begun so bright
with hope

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00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:10,680
was growing old
in loss and sadness.

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00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,200
MUSIC: "The First Noel"

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It is the third Christmas of the war
and the gloomiest.

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To wish each other Merry Christmas
is almost a mockery,
of such is the prevailing gloom.

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Our troubles appear
to obtrude themselves upon us

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more acutely today
than at any other time.

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We recall our fondest hope
and belief last year

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that this Christmas
we should eat our dinner in peace.

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For Germany, too,
1916 was closing in gloom.

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For the first time since 1914,
there had been few victories
for the Fatherland to celebrate.

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Germany had suffered nearly
1½ million casualties in one year,

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fighting against growing odds
in the west, in the Balkans
and in the east.

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Once again, that summer, her
brittle ally, Austria, had broken
before a Russian onslaught.

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The worst crisis that the Eastern
Front had ever known now began,

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for this time
there was no victorious German army
standing by ready to save.

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On August 27th,
Romania declared war

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and opened yet another hostile
front against the central powers.

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Germany's enemies had at last
thrown their full weight against
her with simultaneous violence.

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The autumn of 1916 witnessed
the most gigantic struggle
in the history of the world.

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Nearly 14 million allied soldiers
against the nine millions
of Germany and her allies.

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The German army held on,
but it was badly shaken.

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In September, the Germans had begun
to build a new line of defences

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far behind their front on
the Somme, deeper and more powerful
than before - the Hindenburg Line.

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Hindenburg told his officers...

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We must save the men
from a second Somme battle.

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In Germany herself, people
faced the winter's bitter cold

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without fuel to warm the home
and with little expectation
to warm their hearts.

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The British blockade was working.

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Factory workers and schoolchildren
lived on turnips, black bread
and substitute foods.

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Hindenburg wrote...

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People at home had been bitterly
disappointed by the military events
of the last few months.

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I regarded the country's morale
as serious,

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though it had not collapsed.

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Victory seemed a long way away
from Germany now.

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In Austria,
the dream had well nigh vanished.

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On 21st November,
the Emperor Franz Josef died.

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BELL TOLLS

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Hapsburg pomp and pride
seemed to be buried with him.

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His whole empire lay slowly dying,
victim of the monstrous violence
it had done so much to provoke.

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Its polyglot population -
Austrian, Hungarian or Slav -

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yearned for food, for warmth,
for war to cease.

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With the venerable,
white-haired emperor,

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a large part of the national
consciousness of the conglomerate
empire sank into the grave.

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Austrian political leaders made
no secret that she could not stand
any further burdens

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in the way of military
and political failures.

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The new emperor Karl
saw no salvation for his empire

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or for the House of Hapsburg
in a continuation
of the long-drawn agony of the war.

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Like his peoples, he yearned
for an end to empty victories
and bloody defeats.

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In Ludendorff's words,
he wanted peace.

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CHEERING

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The Russian Empire, too, was dying.

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A dynasty
that had ruled for 300 years

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was collapsing
under the blows of modern war.

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The last hopes, the last energies
of the loyal soldiers
and brave officers of Holy Russia

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had been poured into Brusilov's
summer offensive.

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Great advances, great booty,
huge casualties.

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And at the end,
another hollow victory.

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Since 1914, Russia had lost
over 4½ million men,
killed or wounded,

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and another 2 million as prisoners.

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Misery and discontent
stalked the endless vistas
of the Russian homeland.

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In December, an observer
wrote to Lloyd George...

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In the next three months,
either the government will yield,
or there will be a revolution,

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or Russia will have to stop fighting
and make peace.

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In France, the dying year
brought the same bleak tally.

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One in every six
of the French adult population
had passed into the armed forces.

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One in every 25
of the entire French race
was now dead or wounded or missing.

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Verdun,
the only French victory of 1916,
had taken ten months to produce

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at a cost which everyone understood
to be immense.

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A French soldier wrote...

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What kind of nation
will they make of us?

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These exhausted creatures, emptied
of blood, emptied of thought,

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crushed by superhuman fatigue.

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After two years of war,

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France was calling up boys of 17,

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and still the invader
squatted immovably on her soil.

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How long could she fight on?

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The war can last a year longer

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if our forces melt away at the same
rate as in the preceding months.

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France may emerge victorious
from the struggle,

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but she will be exhausted and will
become a nation of the second rank.

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Neither of the contending parties
knew the exultation of victory.

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To all of Europe,
the price of elusive victory
was proving higher and higher.

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SHOUTING

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Small wonder that men's minds
turned to fresh concepts.

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In Germany, the Imperial
Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg

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saw peace negotiations as the
only way out of the catastrophe.

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After two years of war, without
any real prospect of an end,

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I felt that the step
was politically necessary.

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The Germans captured Bucharest,
capital of Romania, on 6th December

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and this solitary victory
gave Bethmann-Hollweg
the springboard he needed.

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As the German troops marched in, he
sent a note to the US government...

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Prompted by the desire to avoid
further bloodshed and to make an end
of the atrocities of war,

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Germany, Austria, Bulgaria
and Turkey have proposed to enter
forthwith into peace negotiations.

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If, in spite of this offer
of peace and reconciliation,
the struggle should go on,

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Germany and her allies will
continue it until a victorious end,

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but they solemnly decline
every responsibility for this
before humanity and history.

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The American president, Woodrow
Wilson, and the Pope intervened

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to ask the warring nations
to state their peace terms.

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Reactions were mixed.

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In Britain,
a few newspapers argued...

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A summary rejection without reasons
of the German offer by the Allies
is out of the question.

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But other papers demanded war
until Germany was utterly smashed.

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The question is the mastery between
two wholly incompatible views
of right or wrong,

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of humanity, of civilisation
and of law.

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It does not admit of accommodation.

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It can be settled only by the defeat
of one principle or of the other.

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Disillusion and disappointment
at the end of 1916
did not draw men towards peace,

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but these feelings
undermined the leaders
associated with costly deadlock.

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In Great Britain,
Lloyd George had replaced Asquith.

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All Lloyd George's instinct
drew him towards new methods
of waging war.

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I thought, rightly or wrongly,
that there was hesitation,

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vacillation and delay,

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and that we were not waging this war
with the determination, promptitude
and relentlessness

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with which it MUST be waged.

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It is a national war.

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Everyone must contribute

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and it is on that basis alone

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we shall be able to achieve
a great triumph.

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So Lloyd George
became Britain's leader.

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In Germany, with his peace moves
a failure, it was
Bethmann-Hollweg's turn to go.

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The army leaders, Hindenburg and
Ludendorff, now led Germany from
behind a figurehead chancellor.

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In each country, ruthless men
replaced the more moderate.

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Ludendorff wrote...

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The war had to continue and
had to be decided by force of arms.
It had to be victory or defeat.

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There were further preparations
on a large scale, the maintenance
of our determination to fight

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and the employment of every weapon
in Germany's arsenal.

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The Germans believed that they had
found a new means to early victory,

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a submarine used to sink all ships
at sight, even neutrals, even
Americans approaching Allied ports.

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The Chief of Naval Staff was
confident that the campaign would
have decisive results in six months.

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The loss of freight
and imports would produce
economic difficulties in England

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that would render a continuance
of the war impossible.

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Lloyd George recognised
the force of this threat.

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The submarine must be beaten,
or Britain would starve...

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The jugular vein of Allied vitality
was the sea.

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If that vein were once cut off...

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..the Allied strength would soon be
drained of its lifeblood.

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Lloyd George pressed the convoy
system on a reluctant Admiralty,

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which believed it couldn't work.

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The larger target offered by
a convoy was no more vulnerable than
each single ship would have been.

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A submarine was unable to count
on firing more than a single shot,

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as it was at once attacked

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by the escorts and the guns
of the convoy vessels.

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Victory at sea depended on whether
British shipyards could launch more
new ships than those that sank.

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Shipyard workers were exhorted
to speed construction.

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Lloyd George's
new shipping controller began
revolutionary new programmes,

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building standardised tramp
steamers, even prefabricated ships
which never saw a shipyard.

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Another weapon against this attempt
to starve Britain was the land.

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Lloyd George told his countrymen...

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Every available square yard
must be made to produce food.

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The labour available for tillage
must not be turned
to ornamental purposes

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until the food necessities
of the country have been
adequately safeguarded.

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# Keep the home fires burning

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# While your hearts are yearning

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# Though your lads are far away

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# ..Till the boys come home. #

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Even the lakes in the royal parks
became freshwater fisheries
in the drive for food.

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Milk and sugar and meat
remained very scarce
and were only rationed by price.

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The burden of sacrifice
fell on the poor.

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There were demonstrations
and protest meetings
against the high cost of living.

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This mass meeting emphatically
protests against the inaction of the
government on the food question.

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The inflated prices are largely due
to the profiteers who are taking
advantage of the national crisis

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to exploit our people.

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Lloyd George appointed
a Food Controller to cut down
wasteful methods of distribution.

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He appealed to the nation
to ration itself.

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The saving of food
means the saving of tonnage.

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And the saving of tonnage
is at the present moment
the very life of the nation.

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New leaders, new methods,
in Britain and Germany.

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France, too, saw change.

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00:37:40,250 --> 00:37:47,770
General Joffre, victor of the
Marne, commander in chief of the
French armies throughout the war,

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seemed unable to produce new ideas.

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His weary countrymen
now associated his name
with attrition and failure.

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The French government was in danger

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so Joffre was sacrificed with
the title of Marshal of France.

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General Robert Nivelle,
his successor,

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promised what France in her
weariness and grief so desperately
wanted - swift, immediate victory.

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We have the formula. With it,
we shall beat the enemy.

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French politicians clung to Nivelle
with desperation.

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# Keep the home fires burning... #

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The bitterest winter
in living memory gripped Europe.

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For the ordinary people,
it was a time of hunger and cold,
anxiety and sadness.

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00:38:38,090 --> 00:38:42,970
But they knew their duty. They
believed their cause was right.

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In France and Britain and Germany,
there was a grim resolve
to fight on.

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# ..silver lining
Through the dark cloud shining

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00:38:55,290 --> 00:39:00,890
# Turn the dark cloud inside out

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00:39:00,890 --> 00:39:07,970
# Till the boys come home. #